


Emergency Cherry Blossoms

by LillySteam44



Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club
Genre: F/M, I want to keep the surprise a little bit, Tumblr Prompt, will add more character tags as i write more
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-07-14 09:32:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7165688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LillySteam44/pseuds/LillySteam44
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hana has graduated from Asagao and is ready to move on to university with Shane, halfway across the world in England. Everything is going great until a piece of his past resurfaces.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'd like to thank my lovely beta, Asagao-is-life/pennylaneforthoughts on Tumblr. This would not be as good as it is without her!

Hana looked over Asagao Academy for what would probably be the last time. She and Mai stood on roof garden, among the beautiful flowers, still in their graduation gowns. It was almost unimaginable to Hana that she would never spend another day in classes with Jon, PBG, and Mai. She would never be able sit next to Ian in the cafeteria and play round after round of Dumbidoom’s Revenge. She’d never again meet Shane here, on the roof of Poppy Hall, in the early mornings.

“Oh! I said I’d meet Shane!” Hana remarked, finally broken from her train of thought. “I can’t remember where. I should give him a call.”

She started to pull out her phone, but Mai’s eyes went wide, and she quickly took the phone from Hana’s hand. “Come on, Hana. Stay up here with me for a while. Stay with me until sunset at least?”

Hana looked back over the edge of the roof top, and glanced at the sun, sinking in the sky. She frowned slightly, sure that Shane would be at the very least annoyed if she didn’t at least attempt to find him. Mai frowned at her and gave her a look very reminiscent of a puppy. Hana sighed and agreed. Hana leaned on the brick ledge of the roof to look over the campus again.

“What are you going to miss about Asagao?” Hana asked her friend. Mai was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment.

“I know I’m going to miss you, over everything here,” Mai replied. “I wish you weren’t leaving so soon.”

Hana didn’t reply at first. A year ago, Mai, and all of her friends really, had been incredibly supportive when Hana decided she wanted to go to university in England. Now that Hana was set to get on a plane the next day, no one had seemed ready to say goodbye to her. Even Ian had teared up a little when they played their last round of Dumbidoom’s Revenge, right before they were set to walk for graduation. She was sure he’d let her win, but she didn’t say anything afterwards.

“You know I’ll come back and visit,” Hana told her. “And you can always come visit me and Shane in England.”

Mai sighed. “I should accept I’m not going to be the quirky best friend anymore. I guess I can hand the title over to Shane.” Hana giggled at her best friend.

“I’m going to miss hearing the weird things you say, like that,” the pink haired girl said, and Mai just smiled. The sun had mostly disappeared behind the horizon, and the lights around campus started to switch on. “I guess we should try to find everyone,” Hana added, after a few long moments. She started to reach for her phone, still in Mai’s hand, when she heard a rustle of movement behind her. She whirled around and saw every single one of the friends she had made at Asagao since she’d arrived two years ago, standing on the roof; a different sort of flower in each pair of hands.

The closest one to her was Jirard, with a primrose, and he gestured her to him, holding out the flower to her. Cautiously, she stepped forward and took the offered flower.

“What’s going on?” she asked her friend as he gave her a tight hug.

“We’re just going to miss you, Hana,” Jirard told her. He hugged her for only a moment, and gently pushed her towards Jimmy, standing on a little farther down with a bluebell in his hand. He gave her the flower, and a hug as well. She moved on to Jon with a poppy, Luke with an azalea, Jared with an amaryllis, Paul with a lily, PBG with a daffodil, Caddy with a zinnia, Josh with a violet, Wallid with a chrysanthemum, Satch with a daisy, Jeff with a hyacinth, Nick with a narcissus, and Ian with an iris. By the time Ian finally let go of his tight hug, she had quite a large bouquet of flowers in hand; nothing really mixed or matched well. Tears were falling freely from her eyes, and she almost, almost didn’t notice someone missing.

She didn’t even get a chance to look around before Ian pointed her in the direction of the door that lead down into Poppy Hall. Shane stood there, leaning against the door frame, as if he was trying to appear casual despite watching Hana slowly say goodbye to all her friends. There was a single pink rose in his hand, and he held it out to her as she stepped forward.

“Shane,” was all she could manage before she didn’t know what to say. She included the rose in her bouquet of flowers, and it felt like the missing piece that made the collection of mismatched flowers work.

“Hana, before I met you, I-I couldn’t imagine letting someone into my life again. Now, I can’t imagine my life without you,” he paused, and took a deep breath. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a small, velvet box, and dropped down to one knee. Hana gasped, a million thoughts running through her head, though none of them were particularly loud enough to be heard through the others. 

“Hana,” he said again, breaking her wild thoughts, “will you marry me?”

Hana was only vaguely aware of her surroundings. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mai step forward and momentarily took her bouquet of flowers from her. Hana tripped over her word, her one singular word, as she let the flowers go. 

“Y-yes!”

She finally managed to get the word out, and didn’t even give him any time to put the ring on her finger. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, her tears flowing fast and free. 

___

Incredibly early the next morning, only Mai and Ian had come to the airport to see Hana and Shane off. In the car ride over, Hana kept twisting the ring on her left hand, as though it would magically disappear from her hand if she stopped. The band was rose gold with morning glories etched around it and a small, pink diamond in the setting. It was perfect, just as the whole proposal had been.

When they got to the airport, Mai gave Hana a very, very long hug before the redhead passed her off to Ian so he could say his goodbye. While they took the moment to have one very last match of Dumbidoom’s Revenge, Mai pulled Shane aside.

“You and I both know that Hana is a main character,” Mai whispered to him. He crossed his arms and mumbled something, but Mai didn’t really stop to listen. “She may be a main character, but she’s a Japanese main character. It won’t be the same in England.”

“What are you even t-talking about?” Shane asked, though the slight stutter in his voice told Mai that he knew exactly what she meant, even if he hadn’t put words to it.

“There will come times when she’ll need her main character powers,” Mai paused, and removed a box, not much larger than the one Hana kept her precious crane in. “In those moments, she’ll need these. Just throw them in the air over her head.”

Shane looked at Mai like she was crazy, but accepted the box. He gently lifted the lid and saw bits of pink paper. Why would Mai give him pink paper? He had been pretending not to understand before, but this left him actually confused. He lifted one of the bits of paper from the box and realized he’d seen ones like it before. The day that Hana had asked him to the Flower Festival, there had been several of these petal-like bits of paper on her school blazer. He’d only noticed because they’d matched her hair so completely. He dropped the paper back in the box and closed it up before pushing it into his carry-on bag. He told himself he was keeping it to humor Mai, but he had a feeling, somewhere in his chest, that one day he would need them; she would need them. That feeling told him they would work.

“Are you ready to go, Shane?” Hana asked, looking up her from her phone. A winner screen flashed, and Ian looked like he was ready to stop Hana from going anywhere, but he didn’t. He and Mai waved them off as Hana took Shane’s hand and followed him towards security.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love flower language, so here's my intended meaning for each of the flowers:  
> Jirard and Jimmy's primrose and bluebell were obvious nods to the two dorm halls,  
> Jon's poppy is a nod to both the building on campus and Jon showing her the way there her first day,  
> Luke's azalea is a nod to the Azalea arts building and also means "take care of yourself for me"  
> Jared's amaryllis is a nod to the bouquet of flowers Jared gives Hana in his route, as well as meaning "shyness"  
> Paul's lily is "wealth and pride", a good wish for Hana  
> PBG's daffodil is "unrequited love" (I couldn't resist)  
> Caddy's zinnia is "thinking about an absent friend"  
> Josh's violet is "modesty"  
> Wallid's chrysanthemum is "you're a wonderful friend"  
> Satch's daisy is "innocence", a nod to his route  
> Jeff's hyacinth is "games and sports", if PBG wasn't so salty, he would have gotten this one  
> Nick's narcissus is "stay as sweet as you are"  
> Ian's iris is "your friendship means so much to me"  
> And Shane's pink rose means "grace and joy" but was mostly to match her hair.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A special thanks to my awesome beta, Asagao-is-life/pennylaneforthoughts on Tumblr. Once again, she improved my writing immensely.

Hana couldn’t help but smile as Shane led her through the crowded market. Every so often, he’d look back at her, just to make sure she was still there, despite the fact he was constantly holding her hand. She supposed she couldn’t blame him for being nervous. They hadn’t even spent a week in England, and she had already been unintentionally separated from him six times, and their quick run to the store for a few groceries and snacks for their weekly movie night had turned into navigating a crowd.

She had gotten used to the protective behavior in the short time they’d come to live here, so it felt incredibly odd when Shane pushed her towards an aisle lined with bags of, well, something. Her spoken English was quite good, but she still struggled with the written form of the language. The pictures on the packages told her they were chips, and other salty snacks.

“Pick something you think you’ll like,” Shane told her with another gentle push. She frowned at him and cautiously picked up one of the bags and tried to make sense of the words through the varied fonts styles and sizes.

Shane hadn’t wanted Hana to meet her. He didn’t want Hana to even see her, but it was only a matter of time before she would spot him. As he walked over to her, a familiar anxiety started to pool in his abdomen, and unintelligible worries gathered in his mind. Images and concepts emerged from those worries, and he tried to push them away, but he kept seeing Hana being taken from him; Hana scared and crying on her own. He ignored them as best he could as he took in the pink hair, a darker shade than he’d gotten used to with Hana, and a great deal longer, despite Hana’s attempts to grow her hair out.

“Emily,” he said, barely above a hiss. The girl turned from the shelf she was looking at, paused in some internal decision. A smile slid over her face as she quickly realized just who was talking to her. Shane had forgotten exactly how pretty she was, though any leftover feelings of affection had faded with time and distance. Instead, he only felt the familiar panic and anger that had led to their break up.

“Shane! I'd hoping to see you since I heard you were coming home,” she said, in her floaty voice. He had never realized just how similar she sounded to Hana, similar but definitely not the same.

“Well now you’ve seen me,” he told her. “You don’t need to-”

“Oh Shane! There you are,” Hana called, as she rounded the corner of the aisle she had been in, a bag in her hand. Shane started to panic as the plan he’d built in his head crumbled. He had no choice but to introduce them.

“Hana,” he said, a little too loudly. He laced his arm around her, protectively and affectionately. “This is Emily, an old friend of mine. Emily, this is my fiancee, Hana.”

Emily looked Hana up and down, only pausing slightly over her pink hair where everyone else tended to focus their entire attention. Once she’d looked Hana over, her attention turned entirely back to Shane.

“Oh yes, I heard you got yourself a little girlfriend. I’ve heard all about her from your mother,” Emily said, pointedly speaking as though Hana wasn’t there. Shane could feel Hana bristle at her words, the implication Emily was still woven into his life, close enough to gossip with his mother.

“Really? Because he hasn’t mentioned you once,” Hana lied. It was almost as though Mai were speaking through Hana, all the way from Japan, and Shane had a hard time not snorting out a laugh from the imagery. Emily’s eyes shifted back to Hana, carefully studying her this time with a concentrated frown. Finally, another smile spread over Emily’s face, sweet on the surface with a devious glint in her eye. Hana had seen this look before, when Mimi had a particularly damning piece of gossip. Even if she hadn’t already known about Shane’s past with Emily, Hana still would have never trusted her again after seeing that look.

Emily held out a hand as some sort of truce or temporary cease fire. “I think we’ll be quite good friends, Hana.”

The easiest path would be to shake her hand and Hana actually considered refusing for a brief moment. Still, after that very short moment, Hana reached out her own hand and they connected. She had guessed it was a truce, but Hana hadn’t been more wrong. It was a challenge.

“We should get going,” Hana said to Shane, when she’d withdrawn her hand from Emily’s. “Your parents are probably wondering where we are.”

Shane merely nodded, a blank expression on his face. At some point, he’d slipped behind the mask of indifference Hana had known well when she first transferred into Asagao. She hurried them through the check-out line and out the front door of the market. He was calm, as they walked back to his house and put away the groceries. It wasn’t until after they’d disappeared into his bedroom that even a crack appeared in his calm demeanor. He didn’t cry or yell; he only pulled Hana to him and held her for a long time.

“Promise me you won’t get involved with her,” he whispered after what felt like hours. “Promise me you won’t listen to anything she tells you. Please, Hana, promise me.”

“I promise,” she told him in a gentle whisper. “I’ll stay out of danger, I promise.”

After that day, Hana was honestly much too busy to put much thought into Emily, or any of the few, strange stories Shane had told her about the other pink haired girl. The process of searching for and moving into their own apartment had been distracting and draining, though ultimately rewarding. When Shane had hung up a basket of morning glories on the balcony, Hana really started to feel like it was home, for both of them.

There were still a few weeks until their classes started, and Hana intended to enjoy the good weather, if you could call it that, while it lasted. Most nights, Hana liked sitting out on the balcony while Shane pored over his portfolio for the coming semester. Now that they were settled in and relaxed, Hana couldn’t help but notice that nothing out of the ordinary had happened, and that in and of itself made it feel like it was out of the ordinary. There were no burnt dinners or stacks of boxes toppling over the whole time they were moving into the apartment. 

It was nice, strange but nice.

“There you are!”

Hana nearly jumped out of her chair when she heard the feminine voice. She immediately looked around to see Emily casually sitting on the railing of the balcony, as if it weren’t a three story drop. Hana wouldn’t have recognised her if it weren’t for her long pink hair, a slightly darker shade than her own. Instead of the flowy, gauzy sundress Emily wore earlier in the market, she was dressed in a black hoodie that didn’t actually cover her stomach and a pair of light pink cargo pants with some sort of belt that hung uselessly off one side of her waist. On top of that, Emily almost sparkled, like she attracted the moonlight itself. Instead of feeling impressed by whatever confidence and light sparkle Emily gave off, Hana felt a pang in her heart reminding her of how much she missed Jared, and all of her friends back in Japan.

“Um, how did you get up here?” Hana said, peering over her balcony railing slightly. Emily certainly hadn’t come through the squeaky sliding door that separated the balcony from their living room. Emily waved her hand, and completely ignored the question.

“So can I see yours? I’m curious if Japanese ones are anything like on tv,” Emily asked.

“See my what?” Hana asked, furrowing her brow at the girl, wondering if she was being intentionally vague, or merely self absorbed, as Shane had claimed she was. Emily gave her an annoyed look.

“Shane’s not here. You don’t have to pretend when it’s just you and me,” she tried again, but Hana shook her head. “I’ve made the deal too,” she tried, one last time.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Hana told her. “I didn’t make any deals.

“Lame,” Emily said, clearly bored with the conversation. “I guess that makes it easier. Tell Shane I said hello.”

Before Hana could respond, in the blink of an eye, Emily was gone from from their balcony railing. It wasn’t until she had been alone again for a moment before she remembered what Shane had said, and what she had promised him. It wasn’t worth the bother to worry about Emily, not when everything was going so well for them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is interested, I've created an Inspiration board on Pintrest here: https://www.pinterest.com/LilySteam44/emergency-cherry-blossom-inspirations/
> 
> Both Asagao-is-life.tumblr.com and HiddenBlockClubTrash.tumblr.com have drawn interpretation of Emily, plus I've gathered a few reference images.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, a special thanks to my awesome beta, Asagao-is-life/pennylaneforthoughts on Tumblr. I'd also like to thank my amazing fellow Meme Team people! They helped me brainstorm ideas and they helped make this story so, so much better.

When Hana woke up the next morning, Shane’s side of the bed was already cold, though that wasn’t particularly noteworthy. He was an early riser, at least compared to Hana, with her tendency to sleep as long as she possibly could. The seeds of worry didn’t start to set in her mind until Hana realized he simply wasn’t in their apartment. Even then, she wasn’t really worried. He couldn’t have been up for more than an hour or two longer than her, but those seeds started to grow into real worry as the minutes ticked by.

When her worry became distracting, she decided to call his cell phone, only to hear it ringing from their bedroom where it sat on his bedside table. True panic didn’t set in until she realized his sketch pad, the small one her father had given him at graduation, the one he brought everywhere since, was sitting on the kitchen counter. She snatched up her phone again and called the first person she always thought of when she panicked.

“Ian,” Hana nearly whined when he finally picked up. “Shane’s missing.”

“The fuck am I supposed to do about it?” Ian replied, a slight crackle over the international call. Tears started to form in Hana’s eyes as she tried to make sense of what she was feeling.

“I-I’m panicking,” she finally managed to tell him. He didn’t sigh or grumble.

“All right. Take a deep breath,” he reminded her, and she complied, though his words sounded a little distant, as if he’d put her on speaker phone. “Better?”

“Sort of,” Hana said. Though she was still unfathomably worried, the panic was slowly receding.

“Now tell me what happened.”

Hana tried her best to explain what little she knew about the situation. She paused when she got to the part about Emily. Would Ian believe her? They both had heard Mai say some silly things, and this felt very akin to some of the things she would come up with. In the end, it weighed heavily on her mind, and she blurted out the words anyway.

“I-I think Shane’s ex is involved. Not that she’s behind it or anything, but someone, maybe, trying to get her.”

There was a distinct pause, and Hana’s panic started to rise again. She shouldn’t have said anything. Before she could backtrack and try to gloss over what she had said, Ian spoke again.

“So Mai says to find a black box somewhere among Shane’s stuff,” Ian said. Immediately, Hana went back into their bedroom and started to look for this box.

“Wait, you’re hanging out with Mai? I thought you hated hanging out with her,” Hana asked as she opened Shane’s sock drawer.

“I do. She sucks at puzzle games,” Ian replied. “She texted it to me. Her exact words were ‘find a black box in Shane’s stuff and use what’s inside.’”

“She didn’t say what was inside?” Hana asked, getting more and more impatient the longer she couldn’t find said box.

“No, she didn’t, but this all sounds like the kind of nonsense that Mai’s always going on about, so maybe it’ll work.”

Hana didn’t reply for a moment as she finally spotted the small box and picked it up. She felt bad looking through Shane’s things, but if it was necessary, she’d just have to deal with it. She was left confused when she lifted the lid off the box. It was only scraps of pink paper.

“Mai didn’t say anything else?” Hana asked, picking up one of the cut pieces of paper.

“No? Look, Hana, I think the only way I could actually help is being there,” he told her. She sighed and felt like crying.

“Thanks for keeping me calm, Ian,” she said quietly before saying their goodbyes and hanging up. Immediately, the phone lit up in her hand.

[From Mai: Remember the Flower Festival. Use the petals. Be strong.]

Hana set down her phone and lifted a few of the small pieces of paper from the box again. These were supposed to be petals? It took a moment before Hana remembered her first Flower Festival, when Shane and Hana went on their first date.

“Go get your man!” Mai had said, throwing the petals over Hana’s head. Would that really help? Hana hesitated and threw the few petals she’d picked up in the air above her head. She felt silly, and bent to pick them up. She’d have to call Shane’s parents and-

There was a sharp knock at the door. Hana put the box back where it was, shoved her phone back in her pocket and made her way to the door to her apartment. A louder knock rang through her apartment again as she reached for the door handle. She had barely opened the door before Emily pushed her way in, and closed the door behind her.

“Is Shane gone?” she immediately asked, looking around the small apartment, taking in every detail. She was looking everywhere but Hana.

“Uh, yeah. He’s not here. Why?” Hana managed to ask, and she wasn’t surprised when Emily waved off the question.

“Thanks, that’s all I needed,” Emily said, turning on her heel towards the door. Hana didn’t even really think when she stepped between Emily and the door.

“No. You need to tell me what’s going on. Where is Shane?” Hana asked, trying really hard not to let her voice crack. She also had to hold her growing annoyance when Emily rolled her eyes.

“I don’t have time for this. If you want your boyfriend back in one piece, I have to find him,” Emily said, sneering at Hana. When Hana didn’t move, Emily let out an exaggerated sigh. “I really don’t have time for this.”

She pushed Hana out of the way, and wrenched open the door. Without a first, let alone second, look at Hana, Emily was out the door, and down the stairs. Without a second thought to the matter, Hana was right behind Emily. At first, Hana thought she’d lost Emily since she’d taken the time to lock her front door, but when Hana pushed open the door to the front lobby and stepped onto the sidewalk, a bright flash of light caught her attention in an alley a few few streets down. A few moments later, Emily --it had to be Emily with the dark pink hair-- stepped out in strange clothes. It wasn’t too far from some of the costumes Hana had liked on Salor Sun when she was growing up, only with a pair of short instead of a frilly skirt.

The time Emily took to change, however fast it was, had given Hana the time to catch up. She followed Emily all the way across town, to what looked like an abandoned building. Before ducking into a side door, Emily had pulled out a gun from a holster on her thigh. It was only then that Hana started to realize that following Emily had probably been a very, very bad idea. She hands shook as she pulled out her phone again. Mai’s text message was still open when the screen lit up again.

Be strong.

Hana smiled and opened her contacts list and scrolled until she got to the name she was looking for. She pressed the call button and waited through seven rings before he finally picked up.

“Hello?” A very groggy sounding boy on the other end said. There was no crackle in the audio.

“Are you home for the summer?” Hana asked, deciding it was appropriate to skip the formalities this once. “And do you have Slaughter with you?”

“How the hell do you know about my-” Caddy started, but Hana really didn’t want to have this whole conversation.

“Everyone in Normal Boots knows about Slaughter and Salvage,” she interrupted. “Do you have them with you?”

“Yes,” he replied after a minute. “Why?”

“I need your help,” she told him. She gave the address to the warehouse she stood outside of. “I think I need help with a rescue mission.”

It took longer than he promised, but Caddy was there. It was strange to see his Hidden Block jacket again, but it strongly reminded Hana of home. It had been too long since she’d seen someone wear either of the club jackets, and she once again thought of how much she missed her friends. His hands were carefully tucked into his jacket pockets, bulging with what was likely his gun.

“So who exactly are we rescuing, again?” he asked, as they approached the building.

“Shane,” Hana replied quickly. “Shane’s in here somewhere, and I need to make sure he’s safe.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the bit of a cliffhanger, but the good news is the next chapter is already written and nearly ready to go! It'll be up soon.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yet another special thanks to my awesome beta, Asagao-is-life/pennylaneforthoughts on Tumblr. She edited two of these in a row, and I'm super grateful.

Neither of them said anything as they went in through the same door Hana had seen Emily go through. Several men dressed in matching shirts were knocked out just inside, and Hana only barely kept herself from yelping in surprise. Caddy took in the sight of the knocked out guards, and sighed. He took a gun, silver in color, and pushed it into Hana’s hands.

“No! I have no idea how to use this,” she argued, attempting to give it back to him.

“It’ll be okay,” he said. “That’s Salvage. It won’t really hurt anyone. It’ll look like you’re armed though. When this is all over, I’ll teach you how to use the other one.”

Hana nodded, but a sour feeling formed in her stomach. A loud scream from deeper in the building distracted her from the building unease. She gripped the silver gun tightly and, against her better judgement, moved down the hallway towards the source of the scream. Quickly, they came to the end of the hallways that opened up to the large, main area of the warehouse. Occasionally, the whole room was filled with a flash of bright, light pink light. It took a moment, but Hana realized the strange flashes of light were coming from Emily.

Whatever kind of fight she was in looked like barely more than a blur to Hana. She tried to make sense of it, but she couldn’t even really see who, or what, Emily was fighting. Hana hadn’t realized she’d frozen in place until Caddy nudged her, and pointed to a spot on the far side of warehouse.

Shane.

“I’m going to move along this wall,” she whispered to Caddy. “Cover me?” He nodded, and followed closely behind her. He already had Salvage in hand, but despite their slow movements, they reached Shane without much incident.

“Hana! What the hell are you doing here?” Shane whispered, harsh and quiet. Emily and the man she was fighting were both far too focused to even glance in their direction. Hana pushed Salvage back into Caddy’s hand and started to pull at the knotted ropes that bound his wrists behind his back. 

“I’m getting you out of here, that’s what,” Hana said. Her hands were shaking badly, but she managed to loosen the first knot fairly quickly. She pulled at it more and more until the ropes were finally, finally, finally loose enough for Shane to pull his hands free. He wrapped his arms around Hana, but she was working hard not to lose focus again. “We have to keep moving.”

Focus, Hana had to tell herself over and over, as the flashes of light got more and more frequent. The flashes of light seemed to be coming from Emily’s hand. A gun? No, focus, she reminded herself. She tried to focus on following Caddy, Shane gripping her hand tightly, as they avoided being spotted. Just before they reached the hallway Hana and Caddy had entered the large room from, the flashes of light completely stopped. Hana looked up to see Emily very clearly distracted. Hana hadn’t realized she’d lost her own focus until Caddy’s hand wrapped around her arm.

“We can’t stop,” he told her. “She can take care of herself.” Hana tore her eyes away from the fight happening as Caddy almost forcibly dragged her by the arm down the hallway. He stopped short, but Hana couldn’t stop in time and ran straight into his back. She didn’t understand why until she peeked around him. The guards Emily had knocked out were starting to come to. They hadn’t noticed the three of them, as they started to shakily get up. Caddy quickly pushed Hana --and Shane when he refused to let go of Hana’s hand-- towards the door. He put himself between the men and the door, brandishing his gun clearly and slowly backing out while keeping his eyes trained on the men still getting up.

Hana and Shane made it out of the abandoned building just in time to see a brilliant flash of pink light out of every single window near the top of the building. Just a few seconds later, Caddy emerged too, his eyes still turned to the door and his gun still readied in his hands. He stayed there for a minute, two, maybe longer. Hana had a hard time judging the passing of time at that moment.

Eventually, Emily staggered out of the building, breathing heavy, and only then did Caddy lower his weapon. The moment Emily spotted Shane, she ran over and threw her arms around him, pulling him away from from Hana enough that he was forced to let go of her.

“I was so fucking worried,” Emily whispered so softly that Shane was certain Hana couldn’t hear her even though she was only a few feet away where she was checking on a heavily shaking Caddy. Emily kept talking, but Shane didn’t hear her. He only saw his kind and caring Hana make sure her friend was okay. “Now we can-”

“How dare you think it was okay to drag Hana into this?” Shane suddenly said, unable to control the anger growing in his chest. Emily had not only put him in danger again, she had put Hana in danger as well.

“Excuse me? I didn’t drag her anywhere,” Emily argued, finally pulling her arms from around him. “Your little girlfriend followed me here. I’m not entirely sure where the other brat came from.”

Shane completely turned away from Emily to look at Hana, where she was whispering some comforting words to Caddy. Emily scoffed, but Shane chose to ignore her. He wasn’t exactly happy with Hana right now either, but he couldn’t help but be reminded why he’d fallen in love with her in the first place. She was different than Emily, even if he forgot it sometimes. Hana shifted her attention a little, realizing a bit belatedly that Shane’s full attention was on her.

“We are all okay,” she told Caddy one last time before taking the few steps to throw her own arms around him. He held her close to him, as close as he could manage without hurting her.

“You promised you wouldn’t get into danger,” Shane said. “Don’t do anything like this ever again.”

“I couldn’t sit back and do nothing,” Hana tried to tell him, but he didn’t want to hear any of it. It took most of his will not to shoot an icy glare at Emily.

“You need to. Next time, and there’s almost guaranteed to be a next time, just let Emily handle it,” he told her. He was silent for a moment. “I’m glad you were brave enough to come for me, though.”

It was hard to miss Emily’s second scoff. “I saved you and you yell at me, just to immediately completely forgive Miss Perfect there?” Her face was contorted with an angry frown. Though he found it difficult not to react strongly, he gave her just enough of his attention to point first to Hana.

“Fiancee.” He moved to point to Emily. “Ex-girlfriend. I think that explains enough.” He loved hearing Hana’s little giggle, and he kissed the top of her head. “Let’s get home.”

“I want to make sure Caddy gets home okay,” Hana said, shaking her head. “I’ll only be a little while.”

“I’m not leaving your side,” Shane told her with a tone of finality. “Let’s go.”

“Wait, you’re just going to leave me here by myself?” Emily spat. 

“If you want to see where Caddy lives, I guess you can,” Shane said. He didn’t even look back at her. It wasn’t worth his energy anymore. She wasn’t worth it.

“Like hell she can,” Caddy replied. “Next thing you know, I’ll be kidnapped.”

Emily frowned as she watched the three of them walk to the random kid’s car and actually just leave her there. She waited until they were completely out of sight before she closed her eyes. A bright flash of pink light shone from her, and her clothes began to change back to normal. When the last bit of sparkle in the air faded, she pulled out her phone out of her pocket to place the call. She heard the line click on, though no one said anything.

“Agent Marigold reporting in,” she said immediately. “I managed to defeat this branch of the Adonis Vernalis. They took him again. I’ll be in for the full briefing in twenty.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the flowers have a meaning in this story. All of them.


	5. Chapter 5

Hana raised the gun Caddy had put in her hands and, immediately, he had it out of her hands again.

“No, no, no, you’re forgetting basic gun safety,” Caddy scolded.

“Maybe if you spent longer than ten minutes talking about it, Hana wouldn’t forget,” Shane said from where he sat a little ways away on the grass, and Caddy frowned at him. Shane had been mostly playing on his phone and Hana assumed he wasn’t paying attention, but the little things like that proved he was really paying attention.

“No one asked you,” Caddy spat back. He turned his attention back to Hana. “Keep your finger off the trigger unless you plan to pull it right that second.”

Hana nodded and put on a brave face, but she really didn’t want to learn to use Caddy’s gun. It was hard not to feel like she had to, in preparation for the next time Emily’s issues became their issues. So far, she’d missed all of the targets they’d set up and Caddy was starting to get frustrated Hana wasn’t picking it up quicker. Just as Caddy handed the gun back to Hana, Shane’s phone rang.

“Will you turn that thing off?” Caddy snapped. “We need to concentrate.”

Shane just scoffed and rolled his eyes. “I’ll be right back,” he said softly to Hana. It had been less than twenty-four hours since their ordeal, and Shane had hardly left her side in that time. A familiar anxiety still lingered from the day before, but Hana took a deep breath to try to clear it a little.

“Now try to focus,” Caddy instructed. Hana was no less nervous than when they started and focus was becoming more and more difficult to achieve. She took a deep breath and raised the gun. 

“Hana!” A familiar, feminine voice called out. Hana jumped and Caddy had the gun out of her hands again in the blink of an eye.

“That is why you don’t keep your finger on the trigger,” he lectured as she turned, confused, looking for the source. There’s no way it could be, but it sounded exactly like-

“Mai!” Hana exclaimed when she spotted her best friend’s brilliant red hair. “What are you doing in England?”

“Did you seriously think Ian and I would let you deal with something like Shane disappearing by yourself?” Mai asked as she pulled Hana into a tight hug.

“Moosey’s here too?” Caddy scoffed, and stomped off to find where Ian, and likely Shane, were. Hana knew they should probably follow, but seeing Mai again was incredibly comforting.

“He’s back, though. You came all this way just because I panicked? You really didn’t have to,” Hana said.

“Apparently we did,” Mai noted, raising an eyebrow at her. “If even half of what Shane told us is true, it’s my job to ask you what the hell possessed you to do something so dangerous?” Hana bit her lip. Certainly Mai, of all people, would understand why she couldn’t just let Emily handle it.

“I couldn’t do nothing,” Hana said quietly. Mai made a soft squeal noise and pulled Hana back into a tight hug.

“I know, we couldn’t keep you from helping Shane if we wanted to,” Mai said. “I’m just glad you’re safe now. You used the petals, right?”

“It was really strange, actually,” Hana said. She gestured towards the path Mai had just come from as she talked. Hana was glad they’d gone pretty far into the woods behind Caddy’s house. They hadn’t wanted any of the neighbors to hear the gunshots, and now, Hana clung to the extra time to talk to her best friend. “I used them, and right after, Emily knocked on the door. Did they really do anything?”

“Course they worked. You should have known they’d work after they worked with Shane,” Mai paused and frowned. “Well, I can’t take full credit with that one. You did the most of it.”

Hana didn’t reply for a bit. Mai had always been saying silly thing that didn’t make sense, and Hana started to wonder if there was rhyme and reason to what she had usually brushed off as Mai just being dramatic or funny. If the petals, just oddly shaped bits of pink paper, actually did something, maybe there was something to the rest of it.

“Well, let’s not worry about it now,” Mai said. “You and Shane are safe, and that’s the important part.” Hana couldn’t help but smile at her friend. Mai had always been there for her. If there was something Mai wasn’t telling her, Hana had no doubt that Mai had the best intentions at heart.

They stepped out of the trees and Hana’s smile grew wider when she saw Ian, with a sly grin on his face. It was obvious even from where they were, still out of earshot, that Caddy was losing his temper over something. Ian said something, and Hana’s smile faded when Caddy lunged at the older boy. She ran forward.

“No! Please don’t fight!” she called out. She could hear Mai laughing behind her, and even Shane cracked a smile at the scene. Noticing Hana because of her cry, Ian turned, making Caddy completely miss him.

“Don’t ignore me, Moosey!” Caddy barked, but Ian just continued to ignore him. Ian stepped forward and gave Hana a hug. She prepared herself for a lecture, like Mai had sort of given, but Ian didn’t offer one. Hana wanted to roll her eyes when she realized he had his attention still on baiting Caddy. Mai did roll her eyes.

“I don’t know what you losers, and Shane, are doing,” Mai said, “but Hana and I are going shopping. It’s been four months since we’ve had a girls’ day.”

“No, she’s learning to shoot today,” Caddy argued. Hana sighed and bit her lip. She wanted to spend time with Mai, but she needed to learn to defend herself.

“We can go shopping later,” Hana said, looking down at the ground. Ian shook his head though.

“Nope, you need a day off,” Ian said, and Caddy actually made a growling noise. It was so ridiculous, even normally stoic Shane laughed. Hana did find it funny, but she glanced back towards the woods, and then at the car. Caddy was distracted for the moment, but it wouldn’t be long until he was focused again. She knew he would send away Ian, for obvious reasons, and Mai would likely have to go with him.

“Do you even want to do this, Hana?” She snapped out of her train of thought to see Shane, suddenly standing in front of her. He had his hands on either side of her arms, as if he were going to pull her into a hug. He looked at her intently, patiently, as he waited for her answer.

“I need to,” Hana said. “I need to be able to protect myself.” The rest of the sentence hung, unspoken, between them. They both knew she felt a need to protect Shane, just as much he felt a need to protect her.

“I agreed to support you with this because it's what I thought you wanted,” he told her. “There are other ways to defend yourself. We could learn martial arts together.”

Hana perked up at the suggestion. Even only with paper targets, using a gun had made her uneasy. She had never felt comfortable with the cold metal in her hand, and she had shaken so badly, she missed every target.

“I'd like that,” Hana finally told him. “I don't like this.”

“That's perfectly fine. We'll go out looking for a self defense class tomorrow,” he told her. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead.

“Hey, lovebirds,” Mai said, her voice slightly raised from where she stood. She was more or less the only thing separating Caddy from Ian. “We have to go somewhere, or these two might actually kill each other.”

“Well, we're done for today,” Shane said. Caddy, at least momentarily, was distracted from his fixation on Ian.

“What do you mean we're done? We are most certainly not done. Hana hasn't hit one target,” Caddy argued. He seemed to want to say something further, but a glare from Mai stopped whatever anger induced thing he was going to say.

“We’re done,” Shane said with an air of finality. Caddy grumbled slightly, muttering something about wasting his time under his breath. Mai shot him another glare which effectively silenced further grumbles. He still had a deep frown etched on his face.

“And we’re,” Mai said, taking Hana’s hand, “going shopping. I’ve missed my best friend, and shopping with my sister for the last four months has been objectively awful. I don’t really care who stays and who comes with, but none of you will take this from me.”

“Don’t you think you’re just a little grumpy from the jetlag?” Ian asked, but Mai turned her glare to him.

“That’s it, no losers allowed,” Mai declared, turning towards the car and pulling Hana along with her. “You can play your dumb puzzle games when we get back.”

Shane was already there, holding a door open for Hana. The normally cheerful and upbeat red head chose not to say anything, but did give him a warning glare. Between Ian and Shane, Hana wasn’t sure which boy knew best how to press Mai’s buttons to get her riled up, but she was glad that Shane, at least, was choosing not to push them today. As much as she was really excited to spend time with her best friend, Hana still didn’t want to be away from Shane. 

“So, Hana, what do you think? Mai would like the department store on fifth, right?” Shane asked as he started the car. Hana grinned and nodded. Having her best friends back, even for a little while, was exactly what she needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I'm back! :)
> 
> Long story short, I kind of fell out of the Asagao fandom in pursuit of other creative projects, and now I'm back! I have not run this chapter through a beta, so I apologize for the drop in quality. I have another chapter in the works as a follow up to this one. I hope to have it out in a few days.


	6. Chapter 6

Hana gladly let Mai drag her through the first four stores. Nearly everything seemed to be Mai’s color, or seemed to be cut to suit her, so none of the clothes they looked at interested Hana they same way they interested Mai. She was happy to hear Mai chatter on and on about some relationship drama from fellow Asagao alumni and hold Shane’s hand as they walked around. At some point, in the fifth store, Mai forced a dark blue dress into Hana’s hands.

“Don’t you dare tell me you don’t like the color,” Mai said before Hana could argue. “It goes so well with your hair, and it just makes your ribbon pop even more.”

Hana sighed as her protests fell on deaf ears and went into one of the dressing rooms. After she’d closed the door, Mai was content to settle her bags on the floor and sit in the provided chairs next to Shane.

“I’m so glad to see Hana safe,” Mai said. “I was worried the petals wouldn’t be enough.”

Shane considered her words for a long moment, a frown slowly formed on his face.

“What _are_ they? What do they even do?” he asked.

“They’re magic, like Hana is,” Mai answered, as though it were obvious. Shane rolled his eyes, but Mai gently shook her head. “You’d think you’d believe it more for all you called her hair unnatural in school. Plus, if even part of what you told me about yesterday is true, you know magic is real.”

“How do you even know any of this? Are you, uh, like them?” he hesitated to use the actual word. It felt silly to say it aloud.

“Magic?” she finished for him. “No, not myself. I guess kind of, by proxy. I just kind of know things, stuff I shouldn’t, stuff that doesn’t really make sense to other people. I call it being the ‘quirky best friend’, but Ian says I watch too much anime.”

“So. you-” Shane started to say, but he dropped his words as Hana came out of the dressing room. The dress Mai had given her to try on was form fitting without being too tight, and a modest neckline without being conservative. The dark blue color suited her in ways he didn’t have the words to describe and the sight of her made his throat dry out. Her uncertain blush colored the apples of her hesitant smile a deep red and Shane had a strong desire to recreate it in water colors. He barely even noticed Mai’s excited babbling.

“-if you don’t get that dress, I’m just going to buy it and give it to you for Christmas,” Mai gushed.

“Does it fit?” Shane asked Hana, cutting off Mai. She nodded, her blush enveloping her whole face. “Then I’m getting it. Go ahead and change back.” Mai pushed her back into the dressing room and closed the door behind her with a satisfied smile.

“I’m making you wear that to dinner,” Mai called through the door. “I don’t care if we’re getting take out or going to the fanciest place in the country. You’re going to look stunning.”

 

The first words Caddy said to Hana as they all met up for dinner were, “I can’t believe you left me with Moosey all afternoon. Just so you could shop!” He was agitated, but no more than normal and Hana was glad the gun matter was dropped. She realized she hadn’t thought about Emily, or the need to learn to protect herself, since they left Caddy’s neighborhood. Hana was glad for Shane’s suggestions of taking martial arts. They could do it together and, for now, they would just enjoy themselves.

Mai had truly insisted Hana wear her new dress and had even done her hair into a ‘messy-on-purpose’ half-up style. Mai had also dressed up a little with a skirt, printed with white camellias, and a black halter top with a plunging neckline. None of the boys had dressed any different, but that made it better, at least for Hana.

It almost felt like they were back at school, spending time in Higanbana, as the hostess sat them at a table in an Italian restaurant Hana rather liked. Caddy and Ian bickered, while Mai would chatter to anyone who would listen about anything and everything, all while Shane drew the two Traveller’s Joy flowers in the center of the table in his small sketchpad. It felt extremely normal, and it was exactly what Hana needed after everything that had happened.

“So,” Mai began as their meals were placed before them, “when exactly is your wedding?” Hana nearly dropped her fork and Shane began to cough as a quick intake of air sucked the little bit of food in his mouth into his trachea. “What?” Mai asked at their surprised reactions. “You know what crisis is like together. My mom says that a couple should know peace and crisis before they get married. Nothing should stop you now.”

“After graduation,” Shane finally managed. Though his throat was now clear, it still burned. Hana handed him her water glass.

“We promised my dad,” she added. “Not until I graduate university.”

Mai pouted. “Damn. I want to pick out my maid of honor dress.” Hana laughed as they proceeded to make vague, long-future plans for dress shopping and bridal parties. Ian and Caddy, though Shane silently agreed, decided they’d had more than enough before dessert menus could be placed in front of them. Though she tried to hide it behind her hand, Shane caught the small yawn Hana couldn’t hold back.

“Why don’t we get out of here?” Shane suggested. “We can just get ice cream somewhere.” Everyone seemed to like the idea, with a bright smile spreading out on Hana’s face.

“There’s a great place over at-” Hana started, but she was cut off by her own yawn. Shane wrapped his hand around hers and lightly squeezed.

“You guys take Hana back to our place,” Shane said. “Mai and I can get ice cream while you can pick out a board game or a movie. Maybe get in a round or two of Dumbidoom’s Revenge, like I know you want to.”

Hana’s smile broke into a wide grin and she gave Shane a quick kiss before getting up from the table. Before they had even left the restaurant, Ian and Hana had their phones out and were starting a match. Once their tab had been squared, Shane and Mai followed the same path out the front doors.

Their stop would only take a trip to the store for a couple of pints, only a few minutes really, but it’d be a few minutes to voice a few of the questions still burning in his mind from earlier.

“So magic is real, huh?” he began, the only way he could think to start. Mai grinned as though she’d successfully tutored him through a difficult math problem. 

“Yup. People like Hana, with her hair, are main characters. At least that’s what I call them. They have extraordinary luck, either good or bad,” Mai explained.

“So Emily is that too? A ‘main character’?” he asked. It made more sense than he really wanted to admit. It seemed to explain all the weird things that just happened around Emily and then Hana, that just didn’t happen to anyone else. It made it feel like the world stood still without them, and moved in double time with them around. “Wait, if you’re, what was it? Magic by proxy? Am I…?”

“That’s... complicated.From what I can tell, you’re the ‘love interest’,” she explained. “At least this time around, you are.”

“What the hell does that mean?” he demanded and Mai cringed.

“I probably wasn’t supposed to tell you that,” Mai admitted. She stared at her hands in her lap. “It’s kind of a long story and a little embarrassing. I was selfish at sixteen and probably more jealous that I remember being. It was my fault that any of it happened.”

Shane wanted to know more, but they’d pulled up to the store and it didn’t feel appropriate to talk about this sort of thing in public spaces. Instead, he asked an inane question about preferred ice cream flavored as they got out of the car. While it was almost always easy to completely distract Mai, he was sure she was eager to change the subject. Either way, it felt comforting that Mai chattered as she always did. It was a reminder that whatever magic refused to leave him alone didn’t really change anything. Mai was still Mai; Hana was still Hana, no matter what happened.

They rounded into the aisle lined with freezers and Shane just sagged into a beaten down slouch. Just as much as Mai reminded him magic didn’t change reality that much, he was reminded that magic, or whatever it was, would likely never leave him as he spotted Emily’s pink hair.

“Fuck me,” he hissed under his breath.

“What?” Mai asked, broken from her outward monologue of chocolate versus caramel. “Oh. Let’s go anywhere else.”

Despite knowing it wouldn’t be that easy, Shane gave in to his first instinct and muttered, “Agreed,” and started to turn away.

“Shane!” Emily called out and he could feel his teeth clench. “Who’s the redhead? Things not work out with dear Hannah?”

“Puh-lese,” Mai piped up before Shane could reply. “Those two are so cute, it’s sickening sometimes. Hana’s my best friend.” She strode over to the cooler and pulled out three different flavors. “Starberry for Hana?”

Shane nodded quickly. “Her favorite. Grab mint chocolate chip for me.” Mai added the two flavors to her stack. She paid no more mind down the aisle as Emily scowled at them. Shane wanted to ignore her, but she’d been such a large part of his life for so long. It was hard to ignore the way her scowl turned into a defeated frown. Something Mai had said earlier struck him as he and Mai walked away. Both Hana and Emily were ‘main characters’. He knew from learning storytelling for his comics, when one main character meets another someone has to be the protagonist and someone has to be the antagonist.

“You’re right,” Mai said, snapping him out of his thoughts.”That girl has no business being around Hana.”

Shane nodded. He wondered if there was any force in the world that could keep Emily and the problems she caused away, but he highly doubted it.

“Let’s get back,” he said. He wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of the night at Hana’s side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise I have an idea where this is going. I hope this wasn't too much of an exposition dump. I wanted to explain more, but I also wanted it to fit naturally into conversation. I wonder what Mai could mean, 'this time around.' ;)


End file.
